Calling for greater engagement from the UK business community, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) UK has tied up with King's College London's Indian Institute in London earlier this week to look into the support available for small Indian firms looking to expand into the UK as well as British SMEs looking at emerging markets.

Gunveena
Chadha, Director and UK head of CII, as reported by ET said, “SMEs
are very important as the next level of growth will come from that
sector”.

In
Focus

Some
of these Indian firms are internationalised with a presence around
the world but when they come to the UK, there is a certain level of
engagement missing, Chadha added.

The
findings of a joint research that was conducted by academic of King's
College London, Imperial College London and Indian Institute of
Management Bangalore (IIM-B) was also analysed in the event on the
impact of social networks in the founding and growth of
trans-national SMEs.

Dr
S. Arika Pruthi, lecturer in International Entrepreneurship and
Strategy at King's College London said, “Our research focused on 15
case studies of trans-national entrepreneurs to gauge the extent to
which social ties impact their business. What became clear is that
one size doesn't fit all”.

Her
co-researcher Professor Mathew Manimala from IIM-B continued his
lines highlighting the important role played by SMEs in India, which
command a 40% share of the country's exports

"It is clear
that the British economy needs to engage more with Indian SMEs. It is
an important time in India and the need for ground information has
never been greater," Sunil Khilnani, Director of King's India
Institute stated in his speech.